Which religion has been responsible for the most religiously sanctioned violence throughout history? The best historical answer appears to be Christianity—not because Christians are uniquely violent, but because Christianity became intertwined with some of the most powerful governments and empires in the world for centuries. The Crusades. Religious wars. Colonial conquest. Biblical defenses of slavery. Witch executions. Forced conversion. Christian institutions and governments repeatedly used God, Scripture, and religious authority to justify violence and domination. Islam has its own history of religious conquest and empire, and the Hebrew Bible contains stories of warfare commanded by Yahweh. But Christianity had an extraordinary combination of religious authority, military power, imperial expansion, and global reach for roughly 1,500 years. There is no honest way to calculate one exact “Christian death toll,” and I’m not going to make up a number just to make the argument sound more dramatic. The historical record is disturbing enough without exaggerating it. And none of this proves that Jesus was evil. It proves something else: Human beings become incredibly dangerous when they believe their violence, prejudice, conquest, or oppression has been authorized by God. That is exactly why religion should never be exempt from moral scrutiny. Which religion has been responsible for the most religiously sanctioned violence throughout history? The best historical answer appears to be Christianity—not because Christians are uniquely violent, but because Christianity became intertwined with some of the most powerful governments and empires in the world for centuries. The Crusades. Religious wars. Colonial conquest. Biblical defenses of slavery. Witch executions. Forced conversion. Christian institutions and governments repeatedly used God, Scripture, and religious authority to justify violence and domination. Islam has its own history of religious conquest and empire, and the Hebrew Bible contains stories of warfare commanded by Yahweh. But Christianity had an extraordinary combination of religious authority, military power, imperial expansion, and global reach for roughly 1,500 years. There is no honest way to calculate one exact “Christian death toll,” and I’m not going to make up a number just to make the argument sound more dramatic. The historical record is disturbing enough without exaggerating it. And none of this proves that Jesus was evil. It proves something else: Human beings become incredibly dangerous when they believe their violence, prejudice, conquest, or oppression has been authorized by God. That is exactly why religion should never be exempt from moral scrutiny. #Christianity #Deconstruction #ReligiousTrauma #exvangelical #ChurchHistory - @hopewithholly